The present invention relates to the preparation of produce, primarily citrus produce and the like, for use by bars, restaurants and other establishments.
Various food service establishments, primarily bars and restaurants, make use of prepared produce in conjunction with the beverages and foods they serve. As an example, citrus produce is often used to dress a served item, such as a beverage or platter. The citrus produce which is most commonly used for this is the lemon, although other citrus produce, including oranges and grapefruits, are also used.
A common preparation is to section the produce, either for placement on a food platter or for attachment to (i.e., hung from) the rim of a glass containing a served beverage. Such sectioning is often performed manually, by hand, using a knife. Not only is such a process extremely time consuming, but there is also a significant potential for injury to the persons performing the process.
For these reasons, a number of mechanical devices have been developed in an effort to automate the preparation of such produce to some extent. Such devices generally include a base for receiving the produce and a reciprocating head assembly which can cooperate with the base to drive the produce through a series of blades configured to create desired sections of the produce.
While such devices have assisted in automating the sectioning process, the results achieved have not been entirely satisfactory. For example, the sections produced using such devices have generally tended to be irregular, in shape and in sharpness of the cut, leading to an unattractive service or excess waste in the event the irregular produce is discarded.
Additional limitations were often encountered when using such devices for the sectioning of lemons, primarily resulting from the projecting end portions (hereafter referred to as xe2x80x9cnubsxe2x80x9d) associated with such produce. For example, the resulting lemon wedges tended to include portions of the projecting nubs following the sectioning process. This tended to compromise the appearance of the resulting wedges. This also tended to make it more difficult to grasp the lemon wedges for purposes of squeezing.
Such devices also made no provisions for a common and preferred use for lemon wedges, that being the attachment of a lemon wedge to the rim of a glass containing a served beverage. In order to hang a lemon wedge from the rim of a glass, it is first necessary to sever remnants of the membrane forming the core (or spine) which extends longitudinally through the axial center of a whole lemon, between its end nubs, which may or may not remain present after the lemon has been divided into sections. To this end, common practice is to slit the exposed pulp of each lemon wedge, near the center of the section which is produced. The slit can then receive the rim of the glass, allowing the lemon wedge to be hung from the glass.
To date, whether the lemon sections are produced manually or with the assistance of a mechanical device, it remains necessary to manually produce the slit needed to allow the resulting wedges to be hung from the rim of a glass. This reintroduces the very limitations the sectioning devices were designed to eliminate, that being a process which is not only time consuming, but which carries with it a significant potential for injury to the persons performing the slitting operation.
In accordance with the present invention, disadvantages such as the foregoing are overcome by providing a device which is configured to initially prepare produce which is to be sectioned so that, following the sectioning process, the sections produced are clean, uniform, and ready to be hung from the rim of a glass. Such a result is achieved automatically, and with a high degree of uniformity, automating processes which had previously required manual operations to perform. As a result, the preparation of sectioned produce for use in a bar or restaurant setting is accomplished efficiently and at a significantly enhanced rate, while simultaneously avoiding the potential for injury which was characteristic of prior, manual processing techniques.
The description which follows will primarily discuss the improvements of the present invention in the context of the preparation of lemon sections, or wedges, for desired uses in a bar or restaurant. Nevertheless, it is to be understood that the improvements of the present invention will also find use with other varieties of citrus fruit, such as limes, oranges and grapefruits, as well as other types of fruits and vegetables, in applications other than bar and restaurant applications.
In its preferred configuration, the apparatus of the present invention includes a base having a cradle for receiving the produce which is to be processed, and a reciprocating head assembly which cooperates with the cradle and which includes one or more blades for operating upon the produce which is positioned in the cradle. The base of the apparatus further preferably includes a retaining element which extends over the cradle for receiving the produce, for maintaining the produce in the cradle during operations of the apparatus on the produce. Opposing guides operate to connect the base of the apparatus with the head so the head can reciprocate along the guides, toward and away from the base. The head of the apparatus further includes a blade-receiving fixture which is positioned so that reciprocation of the head relative to the base will bring any blades associated with the fixture into appropriate contact with the produce resting in the cradle of the base.
The head of the apparatus can include an opposing pair of blades which are positioned to align with end portions of the produce, for example, the end nubs of a lemon, for contact with and removal of the end portions of the produce as the head is lowered onto the base. The head of the apparatus can also include a single blade which is positioned to align with center portions of the produce, for piercing into the produce to a point which lies beyond the core membrane which extends longitudinally through the produce, to sever the core membrane as the head is lowered onto the base.
For a further discussion of preferred embodiments of the present invention, reference is made to the detailed description which is provided below, taken in conjunction with the following illustrations.